On a journey...

“Where can I find life?” has been a question I have asked myself a lot recently (but really for years). And really the deeper question is: “What is life, and what does it look like?” I guess the simple answer is whatever makes you feel alive on the inside; that brings a smile to your face; and that gives you energy and increases your capacity. There are so many side-effects of burn-out; or maybe they are rather causes of burn-out, which when combined become a huge mountain that can topple even the strongest of people. But once you have been depleted of your capacity to stand in the face of the challenges around you, one of the things that can help increase your energy and capacity is finding pockets of life. (And of course a lot of other things like rest, exercise, patience when the process is slow, setting boundaries etc. but that’s for another blogpost). The past months I’ve been watching and searching and paying attention. Searching for choices that will bring life, and paying att...

To change habits and ways of life, the motivation for change has to be strong, and the benefits outweigh the effort it takes to make the change.  For so long it’s seemed like the ability to multitask has been regarded as a great skill, but is it really a good thing? Recovering from burn-out, one of the effects I noticed was that it was harder to concentrate, and especially tricky trying to focus on many things at once. I’d try to multitask, only to realise that all tasks suffered from lack of capacity to complete any one of them. The challenge is that the habit of always doing many things at once goes deep, and when I tried to focus on just one thing, I found that it was actually really difficult.  As I did a little google search on the matter, I found it seems like multitasking isn’t as healthy as once thought, and that it doesn’t help productivity. Some even referred to it as “switch tasking”, in the sense that the brain isn’t doing many things at once, but shifting rapidly...

“Do you really think it will go over?” A question posed as I was chatting to someone over coffee this week (with distance of course). My immediate response was that yes, I really do think it will go over, but I don’t know when or what it will look like. I don’t know when we’ll be back to “normal.” But to be honest, I am not sure I really want things to go back to being as they were before ... The past seven weeks have been so very different. Social distancing, staying one meter away from others, having permanently dry hands from antibac and washing hands a lot, and having to limit most interaction with others to a screen, have become part of everyday life. And of course the distance and isolating part of this “normal” I have no desire of seeing become part of the after . But at the same time I see good growing in this time of crisis; good that I do want to bring into the after , and what will become my normal when this crisis comes to an end. Time. Whether we like it or not, o...

A week ago we were sitting at work talking about how quickly the Corona situation was escalating. News of closed gyms and limited gatherings were there, and we were wondering what now. Only the day before we’d been open, and while taking the hygiene precautions and reminding each other to not hug or shake hands, there was a sense of support in each other, and normality was still there. Then suddenly it all changed. From being a crisis in China and Asia, then Italy, it had well and truly arrived in Norway. Friday morning we sat in our staff meeting. News of the closing of all schools and kindergartens for two weeks had come the evening before. We sat there with so many questions and few answers. The one thing we knew for sure was that this was a time to be available and present. A time to be proactive, and to make sure our people knew that we were there even if we weren’t open. That day we made many phone calls and sent messages and emails. Some were worried and needed reassurance,...

As I was filling in the registration card, and wondering how it would end up being typed into the computer, I glimpsed a lot of pink moving around in the area beyond the reception. The ceilings were elaborate and high, and people seemed focused and busy with the task at hand. The card was swapped for a wristband, which was fixed to my wrist with great efficiency. Then we were swiftly taken to sitting area in the middle of the bustle of activity. Not being told what would happen next, we sat there for a little, wondering “what now”. It was fascinating seeing pink ladies busy at work, and quite a few contentedly sitting around in little groups chattering away. After a little while, I decided that it would be a good idea to enquire at the second reception-like counter in the middle of the area as to how to proceed. This turned out to be a wise decision, as the lady I spoke to quickly found one of the registration-card-and-wristband ladies who whisked us over to a couple of chairs, pr...

Stepping out of the car the community looked the same. Graffiti, walls falling down, houses in different states of decay, and the ground an uneven mishmash of concrete and many attempts at construction woven together. As we walked down the familiar alleyways, paying attention to where we walked, I wondered if I’d see her. On our way we smiled and greeted young and old along the way, asking if she was still living in the same house, and the answer was “yes”, coupled with a friendly indication of the direction in which we were walking. Walking up to a small corner house, the door was shut, but we knocked on the door to see if she was home. Hearing affirmative sounds from within, we waited for her to come to the door. Another walk was walking into the wedding venue. It seemed so long ago, yet not that long, that we met on the streets. Now the young man coming towards us was dressed in a grey suit with his hair styled, and ready to say “yes” to his bride. Seeing him again, and being pre...

When your day-to-day is hectic and full, it is sometimes easy to forget and look forward to that which deserves a lot of “looking-forward-to”. On Monday I fly to Brazil. A trip I am and have been really looking forward to, but also a trip which has in moments be far from my thoughts, because the trip itself seems so far away. And now it’s almost here. I am going to visit a city which carries a place of home in my heart. When you live for years somewhere, I think it becomes part of who you have become, and ends up leaving a permanent mark on your life. Fortaleza is one of those places for me. A city I love. A city I lived in for seven years, which truly formed me, and was such a huge part of growing me into who I am today, and hopefully forming in a good way how I live and think and love people today. I am who I am today, because of who I became through living and working there. And now I am going back to visit. It’s been 21 years since I first set foot on Brazilian soil, 1...